Conservation Contains Multitudes

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

The following is guest post by Brittany Sumner, a senior at Clemson University enrolled in Dr. Barrett's Creative Inquiry course focused on amphibian conservation.

I am
currently a senior in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology at Clemson
University. I have spent the last three
months participating in a Creative Inquiry (CI) project that focuses on the
effects of exurbanization
on salamanders in the Clemson
area. This Creative Inquiry really
interested me because my passion is endangered species and human impacts on
wildlife. The research we are doing
shows how exurbanization could be affecting salamander populations in first order
streams, which goes right along with my interest in human impacts on
wildlife.

Our Creative
Inquiry’s outings and research was led by graduate student Nathan Weaver. We started out having weekly meetings that
focused on gathering background information and learning about salamander
ecology. We would read and discuss
different scientific journals that we found on stream ecology, amphibian
ecology, and impacts of urbanization. Reading journals helped us get prepared
for field work and helped us to understand the proper way to set up a research
project. After we were well versified
we picked out streams within the Clemson area to start sampling in. We had one control and four urban sites.

Most people do not know what exurbanization is. Well, exurbaniztion is when people from an
urban area move to a rural area but still continue with an urban
lifestyle. When people move to rural
areas they usually don’t realize the impacts they can have on the environment. Ecosystems are very sensitive and one change
can completely alter the makeup of an ecosystem. Constructing houses in rural areas can result
in increases in sedimentation, erosion, salinity, and fertilizer pollution in
the local streams. Debris and litter
also start entering an ecosystem when is becomes urbanized. All of these things in large quantities can
be detrimental to amphibian populations and their development.

Salamanders are amazing in the fact that they are indicators for a
healthy ecosystem.
Salamanders have permeable skin that allows oxygen and other biological
components to enter and exit their bodies constantly. This is a perfect survival tool in wet
environments but it also makes them extra susceptible to being impacted by
pollutants and climate change. For this
reason, healthier streams usually have a higher diversity and number of
salamanders. Salamanders are very
important to a balanced ecosystem, because they keep the insect and arthropod
populations balanced.
Salamanders are a dominant keystone predator and it is very important
that we do everything in our power to protect them.

For my research I looked into water quality and its effects
on the number of salamanders within a stream.
From going out in the field, and the research I have conducted, it is
clear that salamander populations are impacted by the water quality in their
ecosystem. In all the exurban streams
there were huge amounts of litter all throughout the water and along the banks. From our data it is not clear how much
salinity, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, pH and water temperature affect
populations, but hopefully once more data is collected next semester there will
be a better indicate on of how populations are being impacted. Even though there are not conclusive results
from our data yet, other literature has made it clear that good water quality
is essential for a healthy salamander population. Next semester I would really like to look
into the amounts of litter in each stream and see if that has any effects on
salamander populations and diversity.

This creative inquiry has given me very valuable field
experience and helped me learn how to conduct research. In the world of Wildlife and Fisheries
Biology it is very important to not only have good academics but to also have a
lot of field experience. From personal
experience I can tell you that I have learned more through field work than I
have in my classes. You can learn about
techniques all day, but you will never fully understand them until you get the
hands on experience. Creative inquiries in general teach
you a hard work ethic and give you a chance to do something you are passionate
about.

I am excited to continue my work with salamanders and learn
even more from this CI. I am very
thankful to have found a CI that helped me discover my passion for salamanders
and their role they play in the natural world.
The wildlife in this world play a vital part in our survival. It is essential that we love and respect the
earth and all the plants and animals that abide there. Hopefully this Creative Inquiry and our
research can help us to communicate and educate the public, so that they can
help in the restoration and protection of salamanders.

The following is guest post by Maddy Feiste, a freshman at Clemson University enrolled in Dr. Barrett's Creative Inquiry course focused on amphibian conservation.

We may not always realize it at
first glance, but the natural world is always changing; little by little, and
over long periods of time, but it is changing nonetheless, and a lot of that is
completely natural. However, as people with growing needs, desires, and technological
advancements, we are changing the land around us faster than ever before and
some of the first places affected by these changes are streams.

My name is Maddy Feiste and I am
a freshman student at Clemson University participating in the creative inquiry
Landscape Ecology of the Appalachia. In this program, a handful of us
undergraduate students are working under graduate student Nathan Weaver to
study the effects of urban development on stream health. More
specifically, we’re looking at the populations of salamanders that live in
those streams. Salamanders are an important part of the ecosystem in that they
are the main predators of insect larvae that grow and mature in streams.
They’re very effective keep insect populations under control by reducing the
number of larvae that survive to adulthood. Salamanders are also important to
us because many species serve as indicators of water pollution. For example, a
healthy stream will show many different species of salamanders, while a
polluted stream may only show one species of a highly tolerant salamander, or
even no salamanders at all. By surveying salamanders in various streams, we can
develop a good understanding of the stream’s overall health and the effects that
nearby exurbanization may be having on the water quality.

Fortunately for us, the southern
Appalachian Mountains are a biodiversity hotspot for salamanders, making it the
perfect place for us to study these valuable organisms. The same mountains, however,
have been an increasingly popular tourist destination spot for people seeking
what they consider to be the ideal getaway that brings them closer to nature.
This idea of the peaceful mountain getaway may at first seem harmless or even
beneficial, but the development involved brings us right to the problem of
exurbanization. Exurbanization is a form of low-density development similar to
urban sprawl. In exurbanization, houses and businesses are built farther apart
in order to provide a more secluded feeling for the people living there, while
still providing the services and amenities that would be available to them in a
larger city. All of this widespread development can seriously endanger streams
in the region by filling them with sediment from construction, as well as
runoff from roads and fertilized landscaping. This semester we went on multiple
sampling trips locally in order to assess how this type of development affected
the streams in and around Clemson.

When gathering our data we began
by testing the water quality in the streams, measuring dissolved oxygen,
salinity, pH, temperature, and conductivity. We then moved on to survey the
stream morphology, noting what percent of streambed was rock, gravel, pebbles,
or sediment. This data became especially important to me as we developed our
own personal projects. My particular topic has come to be streambed morphology
and how salamander species abundance varies according to substrate differences
between streams. As we continued to sample this semester, two important
differences became clear in urban versus control streams, and that was that the
urban streams had a high percentage of sediment, while our control streams
located in the Clemson experimental forest almost always contained less
sediment and more rock and gravel. The control streams also exhibited higher
diversity of salamander species than the urban streams, as opposed to the urban
streams, where we only ever found the very hardy southern two-lined salamander.
Knowing this, I wanted to investigate more into why sediment bottom streams
harbor fewer salamanders than rocky-bottomed ones. It may be that the more
uniform sediment provides less habitat for salamanders and their prey than
layered pebbles and rocks would, but only more research will tell for sure.

I’m very excited to continue this
creative inquiry into next semester and gain a greater understanding of the
relationships that salamanders share with their physical environment.
Sedimentation is a well-known problem for streams and in many cases has been
known to completely fill in streams so that they no longer exist. Runoff and
storm water management are both environmental issues that I am passionate about
and that I would like to continue to investigate further with this project. I think
that next I would like to compare a stream near a town using conventional storm water
management practices to a stream from an area using more sustainable practices. It would be interesting to see if there are
very significant differences in the salamander diversity of the different
locations. I look forward to writing about more of my findings in the coming
spring!

The following is guest post by Bonnie Miller, a junior at Clemson University enrolled in Dr. Barrett's Creative Inquiry course focused on amphibian conservation.

My name is Bonnie Miller and I am currently a Junior at
Clemson University. I recently switched my major from Biosystems Engineering to
Conservation Biology. After this switch I wanted to make connections within my
new field and also figure out what real-world situations I might be interested
in. At the recommendation of my advisor, I registered for a Creative Inquiry
called “Landscape Ecology of Appalachia” which focuses on the effect of
urbanization on streams and more specifically how salamander abundance and
diversity may be affected.

A large portion of the class consists of excursions out in
the field to gather data. Besides sampling a variety of streams for
salamanders, we take other data such as the salinity, temperature, dissolved
oxygen content, and pH of the stream water. We take note of the canopy cover
and streambank vegetation among many other pieces of data.

While a large part of the course is field work, there is
also a personal project component. My project is on Basal Area and how it might
be related to the salamander diversity of streams. Basal Area is an estimate of
the amount of an area that is occupied by trees. With this information, you can
get an idea of the canopy cover, light levels, and overall composition of the
forest surrounding a stream. Typically the higher the Basal Area, the more
adult trees there are in the area and the more shade present.

At every site we visit, we use a wedge prism tool to
calculate the Basal Area for the land surrounding the stream. Along with this
data, I am also looking at the diversity of salamanders we catch when we sample
the stream. We identify each salamander and note whether it is an adult or
larvae. I’d like to compare the Basal Area to the number of species of
salamanders that were caught and also the number of Southern Two Lined
salamander larvae that were found.

What can be learned from this? Well, salamanders have long
been used a indicators of stream health. If the natural state of a stream has
been altered (as it often is by urban development) salamander populations can
show that. Salamanders are sensitive to disturbances in their ecosystem and
have a large role that they play. Through looking at the number of species and
which specific species are present, you can gather information on the overall
health of the stream.

Basal
Area is a good indicator of the health of the land directly surrounding the stream. Within areas of urbanization, the forest usually has been disturbed, which
would result in a lower Basal Area. Though the urbanization may have initially
occurred many years ago, it takes an immense amount of time for a forest to
reach the same level health-wise as it was before the disturbance of
urbanization.

Luckily, there has been a recent movement to pay more
attention to the environment and reduce the negative effect that humans may
impose on their surroundings. This Creative Inquiry and my personal project
relate directly to those issues. The first step to solving these problems that
humans may be creating in nature is figuring out what those problems are.
Through research we can see what human or natural factors are altering the
ecosystem and what we can do to maintain the balance. This balance is so very
precarious and tweaking one small factor may tip the entire scale. Overall
urbanization is spreading rapidly and the effects of this development may not
be considered before it occurs. It is tremendously important to be aware of the
delicate balance that is our natural world and to do what we can to prevent a
negative impact on our precious planet.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

The following is guest post by Briana Cairco, a freshman at Clemson University enrolled in Dr. Barrett's Creative Inquiry course focused on amphibian conservation.

My name is Briana Cairco, I’m a freshman wildlife and
fisheries major and entomology minor at Clemson University in South Carolina.
This semester I’ve have the wonderful opportunity to take a Creative Inquiry
class studying the effects of exurbanization on salamanders in Appalachia. As
you may or may not know, the Appalachian Mountains are home to more species of
salamander than any other place on earth, so there is no better place to study
salamanders than in our own backyard.

So, what is exurbanization? Exurbanization is basically
urban sprawl, people like having the amenities of the city, but want to live in
a more rural area. So, land outside of cities is developed to provide easy
access to the city, and a more natural environment to live in. This process may
be the best of both worlds for humans, but these exurban communities can
decimate the ecosystem they’re in. These communities may not seem so bad at
first glance, but when you consider the sedimentation from the construction,
the runoff from fertilized lawns, the increased salinity from road salt, and so
many other factors that impact the streams, the threat these communities pose
to amphibians is very real. Our goal this semester is to sample streams with a
varying exposure to these developments in order to determine the effects
exurbanization has on the salamander population as a whole.

Within our group each person is conducting his or her own
research on a related topic. I chose to research the relationships between
species of macroinvertebrates and species of salamanders. I will be using the
salamander data we get and collecting data on the variety of invertebrates and
looking at any correlation between the two. Salamanders are the top predator in
these streams that we are examining, so when their populations suffer it is
safe to assume that the invertebrate community will change as well. Either they
will increase because they aren't being hunted, or they will decrease because
whatever is threatening the salamanders is threatening them too.

Certain species of both invertebrates and salamanders are
more sensitive to environmental changes. When we look at the data between sites
with different water quality readings it would be interesting to see if any of
the species seem to be sensitive to particular variables. Between sites with similar
water quality, results may show which invertebrate and salamander species have
interdependent relationships. There are so many variables in these sites that
it could be hard to say whether particular species have a special relationship,
but it would be really interesting if for example, sites with caddis fly larvae
as the predominant invertebrate also seemed to have the most black belly
salamanders. Maybe this study could show if the salamanders have a favorite
food, or it could just show which invertebrate and salamanders have similar
habitat preferences.

The task is a little daunting since there are so many things
out of our control, the invertebrate populations will be affected by the
season, so I will have to take into account the breeding period for the species
we find. Also, the size of invertebrate
is important a small stream could support thousands of tiny stonefly larvae,
but obviously not as many hellgrammites. So instead of just comparing the
numbers, I’ll need to compare changes in species abundance between sites.

I will be using this identification
key from Auburn University to identify the invertebrates by order, then by
their feeding group. There are four feeding
groups; shredders, which rely on dead plant and animal material,
scrapers/grazers, which eat living plant matter and algae, predators, which eat
other invertebrates, and collectors/filterers, which filter fine material from
the water. Most stone fly larvae are
shredders, except for families Perlidae, Chloroperlidae, and Perlodidae which
are predatory, and have obvious physical differences. The mayfly larvae we will
encounter will be collectors, except for family Heptageniidae which are
scrapers, and are also easy to differentiate because they appear to have no
head. The caddis fly larvae are more
difficult to differentiate so since the majority of species are scrapers, any
caddis fly larvae will be classified as a scraper. The megalopterans (like
hellgrammites) are predators; as are both dragonfly and damsel fly larvae. I
think these feeding groups will be helpful in connecting stream quality and
both salamander and invertebrate abundance.

I’m really excited to start sampling, and I haven’t seen any
articles about the relationships between certain invertebrates and salamander
species yet, so I have no idea what to expect.

The following is guest post by Will Gallman, a freshman at Clemson University enrolled in Dr. Barrett's Creative Inquiry course focused on amphibian conservation.

I am a
freshman studying in the field of Wildlife and Fisheries Biology. The Landscape
Ecology of Appalachia creative inquiry (CI) interested me because it
seemed related to some of science fair projects I completed in high school, and because I was ready to start learning applicable field techniques. The
research we are doing as a whole is designed to see how the long term effect of
ex-urban development in the mountains is affecting salamander populations in
first order streams. Each student also has an individual research project that
we are to complete alongside the main research. My individual project, will be determining
whether elevation influences the relative abundance of salamanders.

So far for
most of this course, because of cold weather, we have been reading and discussing
existing research papers. I have benefited greatly from this, because I have learned
research methods along with a plethora of things about salamanders and other
amphibians. These papers also have helped us narrow the topics for personal
research. The research topic I chose didn’t directly relate to any of the
papers, but the papers offered ideas on the types of research that can be done.

I originally
had a couple of different ideas for research but narrowed it down to studying how
elevation influences the abundance of salamanders. During a summer ecology
experience, I went on a trip where we learned about and caught terrestrial
salamanders. I learned, based on the elevation, certain species of salamanders
are more commonly found. From this information, along with recent research, I
developed my topic. Knowing that certain species are more common based on
elevation I wanted to see if elevation influenced the relative abundance. I
will gather the elevation data of the testing sites from the GIS mapping
system, and determine the abundance from the actual amounts and species of
salamanders found in the field work. Currently, I do not have enough data to
make any predictions because we have only sampled two locations.

We recently
went on a weekend trip to sample test sites in Highlands, North Carolina. I
learned about different factors that can influence data collection, the methods
used in the research, and learned both salamander and vegetation
identification. The weather conditions that we experienced on this trip were
far less than ideal. One of the sampling days it rained and was overcast; leading
to low visibility and detectability. It also increases the water level and
stream flow. The second day we did not sample due to snow being on the ground. In
addition to looking for salamanders at each site, we also measure the pH,
conductivity, temperature, vegetation, stream bed composition, and percent
undercut banks. All of these variables are measured within each five meter
sampling stretch, which are separated by ten meter resting periods. In my
personal research project I will also record the elevation of the test site,
calculate the relative abundance at each site, and analyze the data in order to
make a conclusion on my personal research project.

This
Creative Inquiry provides undergraduates with an opportunity to participate in field research that
may not be done in classes. The personal projects give us the opportunity to
design and conduct our own research, which is a very important skill in the
Wildlife and Fisheries Biology field. I have learned much more actually going
out in the field and doing things related to this class than I have in a
lecture. This class gives us the opportunity to apply methods learned in class
to the field: an imperative skill to have when entering the professional world.

The following is guest post by Kevin McLeroy, a senior at Clemson University enrolled in Dr. Barrett's Creative Inquiry course focused on amphibian conservation.

After two months of participation in Clemson’s Creative
Inquiry project on salamanders, I have learned exactly how much work goes into
designing a research project. These first weeks spent on this project have been
dedicated to developing an understanding of why salamanders are important to
our ecosystems, how they can indicate the quality of the environment they live
in, and what effects humans can have on them.

Our group’s research, directed by Clemson University
graduate student Nathan Weaver, focuses on the effects of urbanization on the
populations of salamanders. Our weekly meetings have focused on other research
projects related to salamanders, such as what kind of stream habitats they
prefer, the effects of buffer zones around the streams they live in, and
effects of UV radiation on amphibian eggs. Reading and discussing these papers
not only gave us some background information about amphibian ecology, but they
also gave us an understanding of the details involved with designing a research
project. Besides the actual field research, you have to find your research
sites, get permission from landowners to use the sites, and make sure they are
suitable for your project.

The main reason that salamanders are so intriguing is their
ability to indicate the state of the environment. Salamanders are useful in
this regard because their skin, like most amphibians, is very permeable, which
means that chemicals from the surrounding environment will get into their
bodies more easily. In addition to their permeable skin, salamanders also live
8-10 years, so they can show the long term environmental history of their
habitat. Because salamanders live in aquatic habitats, they are directly
affected by changes in water temperature, depth, and pollution.

On March 1, 2014, our group went with Nathan to inspect some
of the field sites. Before the trip, Nathan used GIS to find first order
streams located within these exurban developments. It was an all-day adventure
spent driving around the Highlands, North Carolina area where a good amount of
the field sites are located and making sure they are suitable. Unfortunately
some of the sites we had planned to use were unavailable because they were
located on private roads. It was important to make these trips in advance of
our research because if the majority of the field sites were unsuitable, then
our research would not be credible.

Our first sampling trip did not go as we had planned. The
heavy rain in Highlands, North Carolina went on for most of the day, which
decreases the detectability of the salamanders. Because salamanders live in
aquatic habitats, they are more likely to hide in the event of rain as to not
be swept away by the current. However, we sampled one stream and found barely
any salamanders, but another stream we sampled yielded many Blue Ridge
Two-Lined Salamanders. These salamanders are better adapted to lower levels of
dissolved oxygen, so they persist in urbanized streams. However, the fact that
only one species was detected speaks to the lack of species diversity caused by
exurbanization.

Everyone has different ways of loving nature, and
increasingly more people are flocking to private mountain communities with
stunning views and beautiful golf courses. However, most people living in these
communities do not realize the impact that their homes are having on the
environment. These communities have changed the landscape, and we will see the
effects of this in the coming years.

For my personal project within the creative inquiry, I
wanted to focus on the direct effect that water quality would have on the
populations, but I have reconsidered and now want to address stream
composition. When these communities are built, actions are taken to alter the
direction of stream flow, which results in undercut banks, different stream bed
composition, and different vegetation around the bank. Since salamanders prefer
to live under rocks on the stream bed, I would like to see what effects the
redirection of streams has on the abundance of species.

I am excited for all of the future sampling trips and
continuing to learn more about the effects of exurbanization on salamanders!

The following is guest post by Meghan McDevitt, a junior at Clemson University enrolled in Dr. Barrett's Creative Inquiry course focused on amphibian conservation.

Every summer, my family would pack
into our car and drive ten or so hours to the Appalachian Mountains. North
Carolina is where I spent my childhood when I wasn't in Pennsylvania. I have
such a love for this place and all of the diverse wildlife. The mountains
seemed to come alive when we would go out hiking or rock hopping, and I was
mesmerized by the amount of rainfall every summer. Starting at a young age, my
brothers introduced me to the world of amphibians and aquatic insects. We would
spend all day looking for big salamanders and "crawdaddys," enjoying
all that nature had to offer. This passion for the outdoors has been carried
throughout my life and has led me to where I am today: in a science-based
major, studying salamanders and ecology in my free time. Going to the mountains
feels like going home and I get to do this with an awesome creative inquiry.

My interest was enhanced when I entered middle school. When most were taking
normal classes with all the other students, I was with 40 sixth and seventh
graders in a program called Streamwatch. This was a two-year curriculum for
those passionate about the sciences. We got to learn about watersheds, plant
life, invertebrates, and various information about stream studies, as well as
course subjects. This was heaven for me; I got to spend two years with such
interesting students, dressing up as caddisflies and mayflies, changing fish
tanks, and best of all, studying streams. Every other week, we took trips to
our local watershed system and performed fieldwork in the streams. This was my
first experience with hands on research and I loved it. While everyone else was
a bit hesitant around the worms and larvae, I was immersed in the algae and
macro invertebrates. It wouldn't be a field trip if I didn't come home covered
in algae and dirt. The data collected went to the Chester County Parks system,
and we'd collect all sorts of information from stream flow to pH and salinity.
This is what sparked my interest in stream ecology.

The passion for science continued throughout my school years, resulting in me
taking biology twice in high school (just because I enjoyed it so much) and
being a teacher's assistant for biology. Coming to Clemson, I knew I wanted to
be doing hands on research and be active in the field. Though I got off course
switching from Biological Sciences to Engineering, I got right back on track
Sophomore year changing to ENR: Conservation Biology. This is exactly what I
can see myself doing in the future and is right up my ally. When I heard about this
creative inquiry, it was like stepping back into my six year old self. I was
ecstatic to be working with salamanders in the mountains, fusing both my
passions and interests into one course. So far, I have thoroughly enjoyed the
class. The students are all open-minded, interesting, and nice people. We work
well together and can get things done while still having fun. Going out to
sites is also such a great experience because we get a feel of what it's like
to perform research in the field. This creative inquiry has opened my eyes to
all sorts of topics to work in and I am so thankful for the opportunity. I love
being able to use my plant taxonomy skills and acquire even more knowledge
about wildlife biology, stream ecology, and the Appalachians. I am looking
forward to the more semesters to come with this class as well as the research
over the summer. This is such an interesting research topic and I will
definitely apply it to real life situations, for example, reminding my family
about this issue and making changes at our mountain house to prevent any more
damages.